BENGALURU,July27: Former Director General of Police (Prisons) HN Sathyanarayana Rao slapped a legal notice on his former subordinate, then DIG (Prisons) D Roopa, asking her to tender an unconditional apology for the alleged bribery remarks she had made against him, in a letter she had written to her higher-up.

The notice, dated July 16, 2017, issued by Rao’s lawyer on his behalf, refers to allegations made by Roopa against Rao.Roopa alleged that she had heard that convict V K Sasikala was being allowed extra privileges in Central Jail, Parappana Agrahara, and a bribe of Rs 2 crore was involved in the irregularities.

In the seven-page notice, Rao denied all allegations made by Roopa and asked her to tender an unconditional apology within three days of receiving the missive, failing which he will file criminal and civil suits for defamation, for Rs 50 crore. “The notice mentions that Roopa based her allegation on hearsay .She has not only damaged Rao’s reputation just prior to his retirement after serving the department for 30-plus years, but also dented his credentials in reputed wings like the CBI and Lokayukta, where he had worked and earned a good name,” a source which accessed the notice said.

“You claim that you have taken pictures of irregularities inside the prison.But you have not taken the picture of Sasikala’s separate kitchen and other royal facilities, which are the prime subject of your allegations. You could not take pictures because nothing like that existed,” Rao’s notice read.

SHRC OFFICIALS MEET INMATES

Officials from the Karnataka State Human Rights Commission visited the Parappana Agrahara prison on Tuesday and Wednesday , and interacted with inmates in connection with the alleged at tack on some prisoners in the wake of allegations of irregularities in the jail, raised by then DIG (Prisons) D Roopa.

The commission members collected all details from prison officials and later interacted with prisoners.

According to prison officials, the team first spoke to those inmates who had interacted with former DIG D Roopa when she visited the prison, which ended in heated arguments between then jailer Krishna Kumar and her. The same night, 32 convicts were shifted to different prisons across the state, and there were reports that some of them were beaten black and blue for revealing corruption inside the prison to Roopa.

“The interaction with around 25 inmates lasted over three hours on Saturday. The officials spoke to each of them and took their statements on the incident said to have taken place on the night of July 15,” sources in the know said.

“Initially, some inmates were hesitant to speak to officials, and spoke only after SHRC officials assured them that their identities would be kept confidential. In fact, some of them accused former jail officials of indulging in big time corruption,” the sources said.